Display rack



April 3, 1956 DISPLAY RACK Filed Oct. 29, 1952 P. SCHLADERMUNDT ETAL IN V EN TORS @www United States Patent O DISPLAY RACK Peter Schladermundt, New York, and .lohn D'. Wark, Freeport, N. Y., assignors `to The Gillette Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application October 29, 1952, Serial No. 317,474

Claims. (Cl. 211-49) This invention comprises a new and improved rack for displaying attractively and conspicuously to prospective customers one or more sales articles. Therack is herein disclosed in its adaptation to the display of packaged safety razor sets but is not` limited to that eld.

In general, it is the object of the invention to provide a rack that may be manufactured and `assembled at low cost, that will be pleasing in appearance, in whichk the packaged articles may be conveniently presented and as con.- veniently removed one by one as desired. Preferably and as herein shown, the rack comprises essentially two parts, a at base portion that may be readily molded` or formed from sheet metal and an upstanding panel having marginal edges constructed and arranged to provide vertical parallel tracks spaced apart so` as to be received in; parallel retaining grooves in the rear wall of the article to be displayed.

Going more into detail, the rack of this invention in its preferred form may be constructed entirely of thin sheet metal. lt includes an upright panel having marginal edges forwardly diverging and shaped to present the required tracks. The upright panel is secured at its lower end to a horizontal base which is of sufficient size and stiffness to maintain the rack as a whole in a stable position when loaded with the packages to be displayed and which is shaped to conform with the lower end of the upright panel and facilitate the formation of a connection between the two.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings in which: Y

Fig. l is a view in perspective of the rack, showing in dot and dash lines several cases positioned thereon.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of the rack in rear elevanon.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the rack on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the rack.

The particular goods for which the present rack is designed are case-enclosed safety razor sets. The position of a stack of these cases in the rack s illustrated in dot and dash lines of Fig. l. The cases are generally rectangular in shape with a hinged cover molded from Vinylite, Lucite or other resinous plastic. Each case has in its rear wall a pair of opposed re-entrant, vertically extending grooves as shown in Fig. 4 and it is by connection with these grooves that the cases are maintained in position in the rack. The grooves extend free and unobstructed from top to bottom of the case. The case itself is the subject matter of U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,702,116 of February l5, 1955.

The base 16 of the rack is generally rectangular in contour and herein shown as constituted of sheet metal. The body of the base may be flat and provided with a stiftening corrugation herein shown as an annular shouldered wallr `11 symmetrically located in the base about a central circular aperture. It is desirable to make the contour vof the wall* or flange- 11 `and its circumscribed aperture circular in shape as shown for structural reasons as well asfor ease in formation. The body of the base slopes downwardly at its front edge and the remainder of its contour is formed with a downturned ange terminating in a rolled lower edge 12 which has the effect of stitfening the marginal flange of the base and providing a smooth contact areaV upon which the base rests. As shown in Fig. 2, the lower edge of the annular wall 11 is flanged and lies in a common plane with the rolled edge 12 of the marginal flanges ofthe base. The two rear corners 13 and 14 of the base are beveled at an angle of approximately45". The upright portion of the rack comprises a lower panel 15-which merges into an upper panel 16. This portionoftherack may also be formed of sheet metal. The upper panel 16 is dat except that its vertical marginal edges 16 are folded as shown in Fig. 4 in order to stiften it. This part of the rack may be utilized for an .announcement or price information as to the goods displayed. It ispartially separated from the lower panel 15 by edge notches and stiffened in the area of the notches by a Vpair of vertiealcorrugations 19 which extend a short distance into the lower panel 15.

The marginal edges of the lower panel 15 are inclined forwardly in diverging relation from the body of the panel at angles of approximately 45 and provided with rolled edges as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 which thus provided par allel vertical tracks or rails spaced apart precisely the proper distance to receive the vertical grooves in the rear wall of the cases Ztl as shown in Fig. 4 wherein a portion of a case 20 is shown in dot and dash lines. The divergent relation of the flanges 17 and 1S causes the cases 20 to be spaced forwardly away from the panel 15 as clearly shown in that figure. The angle of the marginal flanges 17 and 18 is made to coincideexactly with the angle of the beveled corner portions 13 and 14 of the ange of the base 10. The lower end of the panel 15 and the rear walls of the base 10 are thus caused to fit accurately in contour as were shown in Fig. 3 and these parts are now permanently secured together. A convenient and effective way of effecting this is to perforate the angeof the base to receive tubular rivets 21 which are struck out from the material of the panel 15 passed through the perforations in the ange and then headed over against the inner face of the flange. This not oniy securely and permanently unites the parts, but leaves the panel 15 and its marginal flanges 17 and 13 with a perfectly smooth external surface and smooth attractive finish. The tracks or rails formed by the flanges 17 and 18 are connected throughout their length by the body of the panel 15 which is thus olset rearwardly with respect to the rails and so permitsV free removal of cases from the upper ends of the rails.

One or more of our cases may be assembled in the rack by bringing the vertical grooves of the back of the case into interlocking position at the upper end of the panel 15 with the tracks presented by the forwardly diverging marginal flanges 17 and 1S and then slipping the cases downwardly until the lower case rests upon the base 10 and those above it are held accurately in alignment in stack formation above it. The cases thus displayed may readily be removed one by one by moving them progressively upwardly until they disengage the Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A display rack comprising a sheet metal base having a downturned marginal flange with rolled lower edge, and a centrally disposed shouldered circular recess bounded by an annular flange stittening the base as a whole, the-rear section of the marginal flange including beveled rear corner portions, an upright panel comprising a flat upper section, and a lower section having parallel marginal flanges diverging forwardly at angles corresponding to the angles of the beveled corner portions of the base and rivets securing the said lower section to the rear of the base.

2. A display rack for safety razor cases that have parallel retaining grooves free and unobstructed from top to bottom in their rear walls, Ythe rack comprising a horizontal base and an upright panel having its marginal edges diverging forwardly with respect to the body of the panel thereby providing vertical parallel tracks spaced apart to slide in the grooves of said cases and hold them spaced forwardly and away from the body of the panel and wholly by engagement with their rear walls, the base fitting the lower end of the panel and being secured thereto.

3. A display rack as described in claim 2 in which the base has a marginal wall of sheet metal and the panel is constructed of sheet metal and secured to the Wall of the base by rivets formed from the metal of the panel itself.

4. A display and advertising rack for supporting in stacked relationship a plurality of individual containers for goods, said containers having retaining grooves free and unobstructed from top to bottom in their rear walls, the rack comprising a horizontal base and upright sheet metal panel secured to the rear portion of said base, said upright panel having vertical projecting anges inclined with respect to the main portion of the panel, and the forward edges of said flanges being rolled to provide vertical spaced parallel rails which cooperate in sliding engagement with the grooves of said containers and hold them spaced forwardly and away from the body of the panel.

5. A display rack for supporting a stack of safety razor cases having retaining grooves free and unobstructed from top to bottom in their rear walls, the rack comprisingr a `sheet metal structure having a base portion underlying the stack, and an upright panel rising from the base portion and presenting forwardly diverging side anges rolled to provide spaced parallel upstanding rails which cooperate in sliding engagement with the grooves of the cases and are connected substantially throughout their length by the panel which is thus rearwardly offset with respect tothe rails, thereby permitting the cases to be readily removed from the rails of the rack by upward movement of the cases.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 79,214 Sebastian Aug. 13, 1929 D. 150,162 Seaman July 6, 1948 1,658,085 Hudson Feb. 7, 1928` 1,794,700 McCaskey Mar. 3, 19.31 1,991,102 Kernaghan Feb. 12, 1935 2,130,197 Schick Sept. 13, 1938 2,302,140 Paulin Nov. 17, 1942 2,702,116 Schnitzler et al. v Feb. 15, 1955 

